Apple’s idea, which was filed with the Patent Office in June 2011, differs from other wind turbine tech in that the rotation of the turbine blades doesn’t produce electricity directly. Instead, the rotational energy from the Apple turbine would be used to produce heat, which gets stored in a “low-heat-capacity” fluid. The fluid can be stored, and used to generate electricity during times when the wind isn’t blowing. Apple’s patent application says that this type of on-demand electricity generation system can be used instead of large scale battery systems used to combat wind variability.

No word on whether or not Apple actually plans on building one of these.